


Breathe

by Catloafly



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Drabble, Ficlet, M/M, Zombie AU, if you squint and twist your head a little, sterek, the lovin is there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-18
Updated: 2014-08-18
Packaged: 2018-02-13 15:20:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2155434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catloafly/pseuds/Catloafly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes breathing is really fucking hard and sometimes it's better.<br/>Then the end of the world crashes down like a tsunami.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breathe

**Author's Note:**

> If you squint your eyes and twist your head a little you can see the Sterek...not really.  
> But enjoy the ficlet/drabble anyways! I doubt I'll continue but maybe with a little love I may?  
> Either way, enjoy!

It's been maybe a month since it has started and nothing has gotten any better. Sometimes it feels as though everything is going their way with the sun shining above them and bags full of supplies on their backs but then something comes and ruins it. And then the harsh reality comes crashing down and it makes it feel like there isn't enough air to inhale.  
And Stiles looks, searches so desperately for that peace, for the end where he justs breathes and instead of air, he gets a lungful of water and he numbs, just like all those years ago.  
But Derek doesn't let him, he drags him back, claws his way out of the hole Stiles dug for them, and Stiles can breathe again but it's not what he wanted and he screams and yells at Derek but he just takes it, let's Stiles beat his fists weakly against Derek's chest.  
And then he's crying, face twisted with desperation and anger and complete and utter remorse.  
Derek just clasps a firm hand on his shoulder and squeezes, just like Stiles did all those months ago, where everything was simpler-as simple as running away from Alpha packs and kanimas was.  
They continue on when Stiles' breathing returns to normal.  
They drive around in the jeep, Derek's camaro having been ransacked within the first week of it all starting. Looking back on it in the moments where they can breathe, Stiles muses that the expression on Derek's face was priceless as he retold the story of seeing it with windows shattered, wheels torn off, and dents specking its side.  
They drive everywhere, Stiles' iPod is plugged in and Stiles is belting the lyrics out to some ACDC or Metallica song and Derek just has a familiar scowl on his face. The windows are usually rolled down and they avoid the big cities, taking to the rural paths and forgotten highways as to avoid the dead.  
Then a song from Blink-182 comes on, I Miss You, and Stiles grows quiet, eyes watching the landscape roll past as Derek continues driving. It happens every time, and Derek offers to change it but Stiles says no and they listen to it. And as Stiles sits in thought, Derek glances at him every few minutes to make sure he's okay. Stiles looks like it but the werewolf knows better.  
Because Stiles really isn't okay.  
Stiles remembers Beacon Hills. Of growing up there, driving on its roads till its been burnt into his mind like a map. He remembers growing up in the same old house with his mom and dad, remembers his dad going to work and returning home with a tired smile as Stiles crawls into his lap and the soft kiss he presses to his head and his mom's cheek.  
He remembers meeting Scott. Seeing him building a sandcastle alone and Stiles would walk up to him, juice box in hand, straw being chewed to bits between his teeth. And they would talk, and then Stiles had to pee, and because he was a big boy who wanted to prove that he didn't need pull ups anymore, he shucked his pants down and peed on Scott's castle.  
Then a beautiful friendship blossomed and they had been inseparable ever since.  
Fast forward a few years, Stiles' mom dies.  
He's a sniveling mess, and there's too many people crowding him, saying they're so sorry but they shouldn't direct it to him because it's his fault she's gone, it really is, and he can't really face his father because of that.  
So he just stands there, Scott quietly standing beside him as one person after another comes forth and tells him their apologies and it's just truly horrible.  
And then when they're all done and gone, Scott hugs him, promises him little kid promises like how Stiles could have his pudding tomorrow and Stiles knows that it wouldn't be enough, would never be enough because he aged within a day, but he's so thankful, so fucking grateful that Scott would even consider giving him that that he just breaks into more sobs and buries his face into his slightly taller friend's shoulder.  
Breathing is a lot harder from that moment on but it gets a little better around Scott.  
Fast forward a few more years, and Scott gets bit. Cue all their wild adventures of trying not to die and Stiles' life getting thrown over his own head. He tries his best, meets all these new people and suddenly he has closer friends, friends who would die for one another-literally, there were a few close calls like the ones with Erica and Boyd in the vault and so many more. But they were a family, a pack, and although Stiles was always in mortal danger, he found he didn't mind.  
For the first time since his mother's death, Stiles could really breathe.  
And then another fast forward, about 4 years after that and they're all around 20-well who knows how old Derek is-and the world turns to shit. Cliche as it is, it is true.  
Some evil dude in a laboratory in butt fuck no where decided he wanted to make humanity pay back for all the misfortunes thrown at him so forth came the zombie fucking apocalypse.  
Stiles was thrown in a flurry of motion for the next couple of days, trying to stay alive. And it just goes all downhill really fucking fast.  
Erica and Stiles were going house to house, scavenging when he had found his father, zombified in their house, trying to get through the door at all the commotion in the streets. Stiles tried to go in, his illogical mind at the time telling him that his father was okay, was going to be okay, but at the last minute Erica pushed him away and took a bite.

Turns out werewolves aren't exactly immune.

Boyd took Erica's body somewhere and was never seen again.

The military marches through, taking with them every single military or hospital personnel they can get. Scott gets whisked away with his mom, as does Allison, and her family go because Chris was some form of an army man before.  
And then they're gone.  
It's just Stiles and Isaac left, when on the seventh day of the apocalypse, Isaac screams he can't take it anymore and ends his life right then and there.  
Stiles doesn't know where he got the gun, but he takes it anyway, gathers what little he can, then high tails it out of there.  
On the ninth day, Derek finds Stiles staring blankly at a bowl of stale cereal, unshed tears gathering at the corners of his eyes and sticky tracks trailing down his cheeks. Breathing is really hard, little shallow puffs of air slowly force their way down his throat.  
Stiles wishes he could just cut it off.  
And when Derek offers Stiles companionship and a road that leads anywhere but Beacon Hills, Stiles' chest loosens and breathing becomes the teeniest bit easier.  
And he accepts.


End file.
